Issue Archive

This work seeks to create libraries that are truly cross-platform, and support hardware from different manufacturers of different generations.
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
New hybrid computing systems consist of a multicore CPU (central processing unit) and one or more massively parallel accelerator devices, such as GPUs (graphics processing units). Effectively utilizing these systems involves using all of the available computational resources, which may be difficult to program. Computing libraries have long existed to alleviate programmer burden and to provide high-performing and tested implementations for common tasks. Unfortunately, the library space is very fragmented, even in cases where the libraries cover similar functionality. In the accelerated computing space, this is compounded by different libraries and manufacturer-specific products that are used, all of which are incompatible with one another. The work described here seeks to overcome much of this burden, by creating libraries that are truly cross-platform, supporting hardware from different manufacturers, of different generations, and of differing levels of parallelism.

This is a unique rapid development framework, complete with checklists, schedules, and supporting procedures.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
JPL Unified Methodology Process (JUMP) is an effort to establish a common frame of reference across OCIO (Office of Chief Information Officer) and EBIS (Enterprise Business Information Services Division). The iterative approach to project management is more powerful and efficient, enables better reviews, and incurs lower overhead costs. JUMP is a tailored version of rational unified process (RUP) and the iterative process. This process is flexible, scalable, and manageable.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
The Automated Evaluation Software Web application was created using Java Enterprise technologies, which provided capabilities for dynamic report generation and Microsoft output. The Tomcat Application server makes the application robust, fast, and reliable. HTML 4.0 was used to create the user interface, making it compatible with both Internet Explorer and Firefox. The application takes advantage of the Jakarta Struts framework, making a proper Model View Controller design. The Struts framework provides the ability to change the navigation and presentation without changing the underlying data model, and vice versa.

The Web service connects front-end user interfaces to the back-end analysis executions.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Engineering design models are normally developed using specific modeling tools such as Excel, Matlab, Maple, and Mathematica. It is difficult to connect various models written in different modeling environments and produce results without extensive effort. Phoenix ModelCenter is a commercial tool that can perform this kind of operation on a single desktop computer via a graphical user interface.

The technologies NASA develops don’t just blast off into space. They also improve our lives here on Earth. Life-saving search-and-rescue tools, implantable medical devices, advances in commercial aircraft safety, increased accuracy in weather forecasting, and the miniature cameras in our cellphones are just some of the examples of NASA-developed technology used in products today.

The term “smart grid” is an umbrella term used to refer to new technologies that aim to address today’s electrical power grid challenges. At a high level, these technologies address challenges associated with grid reliability and reactive maintenance, renewables integration, and disturbance detection. One way to help address these challenges is to push decision-making and intelligence closer to the grid, embedded within flexible instrumentation to achieve faster response times, better bandwidth utilization, and functionality field upgrades that will keep field instruments up-to-date with the latest algorithms and methodologies to monitor and protect the grid.

Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
The NASA Langley Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch (ASAB) is heavily involved in research studies to evaluate new and emerging concepts targeted at improving the National Airspace System (NAS). The primary tool used by ASAB to perform these studies is the Airspace Concept Evaluation System (ACES), a medium-fidelity, NAS-wide simulation environment.

Question of the Week

This week's Question: Last week, Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, said that the electric car maker would introduce autonomous technology, an autopilot mode, by this summer; the technology will allow drivers to have their vehicles take control...